Recent Comments

I'm printing the top now in glow in the dark blue abs no supports and is going perfectly. I'm going to run the bottom through meshmixr and add smart supports there to see how it does . I'll let you know :)

I had limited success using jefarazzi's settings. The structure of the base printed out well without too much support though I lost some of the upturned tentacles. The hanging tentacles didn't fare so well. They printed fine for about two inches but then my nozzle started pushing the tops around until I ended up with a fuzzy blob. The bed moves in the Y direction on my gMax printer which likely introduces too much vibration to print such a large number of slender stalks. I might try by printing some tentacle strands flat and then hanging them from the base. Or, I thought of making them directly from slightly melted filament.

I'll use a compact fluorescent bulb in the lamp, which should create enough heat to damage the PLA. I'll post a photo when I'm done. Thanks for the suggestions.

I printed mine on a MakerBot Replicator 5th gen at a height of .15mm with a print speed of 40mm/s. The two tallest tentacles were too tall to print their full height, so they were cropped off.

I printed the bottom part upside down at 100%. Once it got past the base (the flat area that everything attaches to) of the bottom part, there was was only partial supports for two tentacles. The really curvy one had supports inside of one of the curves about half way up. The base of the bottom did have a vast network of supports, so you are in the clear of supports after the first half inch or so.

I think it took 10 hours to print using natural color MakerBot PLA. I printed it slower than necessary to give the tentacles time to cool before the next layer.

I'm 70% done printing the top without support and it looks great. I'm using translucent PLA. I'd appreciate anyone who can offer any suggestions about how best to print the bottom. I might try adding support up to the main part of the base and then just see how long my printer can make the tentacles before they all get pushed over.

I'm printing the top now in glow in the dark blue abs no supports and is going perfectly. I'm going to run the bottom through meshmixr and add smart supports there to see how it does . I'll let you know :)

I printed mine on a MakerBot Replicator 5th gen at a height of .15mm with a print speed of 40mm/s. The two tallest tentacles were too tall to print their full height, so they were cropped off.

I printed the bottom part upside down at 100%. Once it got past the base (the flat area that everything attaches to) of the bottom part, there was was only partial supports for two tentacles. The really curvy one had supports inside of one of the curves about half way up. The base of the bottom did have a vast network of supports, so you are in the clear of supports after the first half inch or so.

I think it took 10 hours to print using natural color MakerBot PLA. I printed it slower than necessary to give the tentacles time to cool before the next layer.

Not sure if the bottom will be printable by FDM printer - perhaps with support but there will be a lot of it! I am concerned about PLA standing up to the temperature of the light bulb. It would be great of you could give feedback on your experience?

I had limited success using jefarazzi's settings. The structure of the base printed out well without too much support though I lost some of the upturned tentacles. The hanging tentacles didn't fare so well. They printed fine for about two inches but then my nozzle started pushing the tops around until I ended up with a fuzzy blob. The bed moves in the Y direction on my gMax printer which likely introduces too much vibration to print such a large number of slender stalks. I might try by printing some tentacle strands flat and then hanging them from the base. Or, I thought of making them directly from slightly melted filament.

I'll use a compact fluorescent bulb in the lamp, which should create enough heat to damage the PLA. I'll post a photo when I'm done. Thanks for the suggestions.

Awesome design, may give it a shot but not sure about those tentacles. A cool idea would be to have a bottom part, with snap in spots for tentacles/chain's that are printed separately. Would be really cool!

This is an amazing contribution to this community, and i for one would like to thank you. It is commercial quality and you clearly have put much work into this design - well done. I am currently printing the top, although not so sure as to best to print the bottom, but whether i am successful or not doesn't change your excellent art or valuable contribution..... i will look out for any other
PS - if anyone has successfully printed the low portion, any tips would be very much appreciated :)

Yes, two separate files would be more convenient. The tools most of use can't split parts out of a single file. Thingiverse has a neat feature where if you have several STL files for one Thing, they automatically create a zip file so that they can be downloaded in one file, then you can unzip the file to get to the individual STL files.

Also, can you share what material and settings you used to print this?

Hi Laird, This print is professionally done by Shapeways in their 'White Strong and Flexible' material (SLS nylon plastic). I'll upload the two separate files for this model also, thanks for the tip about multiple files :)

couple shots. sorry for potato... i figure i'll worry about getting lighting / photos right once I do the lower part. that could be a bit more difficult to lay out on the makerbot. also i have some ideas for modification.

Unellenu, thanks for the positively gorgeous "thing"; it's really special and caught the eye of everyone walking by while it was printing. Posted a photo of the one I printed in white PLA on a Makerbot Replicator 5 generation. I printed it without supports, full sized. It did surprisingly well, even though it was "air printing" a couple of layers on the deepest wells of the top set of indents and a few places on the layers above. Removing the stringiness inside was definitely easier than removing a ton of makerbot supports would have been. I was also having troubles with the nozzle clogging--3 clogs during the print; it took something like 25 hours to print. It's a stunningly beautiful model, and I can't wait to do the other half, but I'm going to work on the model first to minimize supports and make sure it turns out the best possible.